With the drought deepening, Sacramento is taking the first steps to soften the damage. A $687 million package boosts conservation and provides aid for those left jobless in farm country. But the moves will take months to take effect and barely touch the state's long-term water woes.

The package was unveiled by the state's top Democratic leaders, including Gov. Jerry Brown, indicating it will likely pass the Legislature within weeks. The hurry-up plan largely takes money from past bond measures and directs funds to ready-to-go projects that use the state's shrinking water supplies more thriftily.

Recycling, underground supplies and drinking water purity are all on the list along with emergency relief for areas hit hard by drought-spurred layoffs. It matches plans announced by President Obama last week on a quick visit to the San Joaquin Valley and follows Brown's call for a voluntary 20 percent cut in water use.

The plans, though, are nothing close to a full response to the drought. State lawmakers are still wrestling over what to include in a bond measure delayed from past ballots because of its multibillion-dollar size. There may be no better time to present organized and coherent fixes to California's water supply than the November ballot, though the idea makes incumbents such as Brown running for re-election nervous.

Also missing in the Band-Aid approaches so far is a full debate about the governor's plan to build a giant water diversion system that would shunt Sacramento River water around the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to supply farms and cities in the San Joaquin Valley. Both the bond measure and the diversion plan could reshape water policy for decades.

There are other divisive issues that went unmentioned. Republican legislators want more dams, which take years to build. Environmentalists want to stop fracking, an oil drilling practice that's heavy on water use but a source of jobs and energy. Farmers want more water, while critics say dusty-dry regions such as the western San Joaquin Valley need to rethink land use.

It may be too much to expect full answers to the drought questions before the rainy season is over. Sacramento lawmakers can't make it rain or mandate sweeping shifts in water management that might need reversing if the skies open up.

Brown noted this dilemma in rolling out the spending plan. "Each week we review where we are, but what's needed will be and is being done."

Translation: Get ready California. Huge changes in water policy may be just a few weeks away.